In recent days, the attorneys general of both Florida and the United States demonstrated a stunning ignorance — or perhaps blatant disregard — for the Constitution both took oaths to defend.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened a former legislator from Orlando who made a Facebook post about ICE agents at a bus station, which she’s completely entitled to do.
And former Florida A.G. Pam Bondi, who’s now the nation’s top prosecutor, threatened to sic the Justice Department on citizens who say things she considers “hate speech,” which she is not entitled to do.
Bondi was quickly forced to partially backtrack after a slew of principled conservatives slammed her for her unconstitutional and authoritarian desires.
But both Florida-bred GOP politicians proved these are scary times for anyone who believes in free speech and opposes unchecked power.
We start with Bondi, who appeared on a podcast Monday where she vowed to “go after” people who said things she considered hateful in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk’s death was obviously heinous and revolting. Only sickos would celebrate the murder of anyone for their beliefs.
But after Bondi said, “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,” many of Bondi’s fellow conservatives pounced.
Among them: Fox News’ chief political analyst Brit Hume, who tweeted: “Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. She should know this.”
Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called “hate speech,” repulsive though it may be, is protected by the
First Amendment. She should know this. https://t.co/y9UqEjZkeb
— Brit Hume (@brithume) September 16, 2025
That was actually kind compared to the sentiment shared by conservative pundit Erik Erickson who said: “Our Attorney General is apparently a moron.”
Many of the conservatives who took issue with Bondi’s threat used Kirk’s own words to show her how wrong she was, quoting a tweet from Kirk last year when he said: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.”
Many people disagree with Kirk’s sentiment that hate speech doesn’t exist. But hardly anyone with a basic understanding of the First Amendment believes anyone should be prosecuted for their words — no matter how vile or ugly — unless they represent a direct call for or threat of violence.
The next morning, Bondi posted a long-winded response where she tried to recast her previous day’s comments by claiming she’d only target “violent” speech — contrary to what everyone clearly heard her say the day before — while still making it clear that she was only interested in protecting “conservative ideals.”
Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech.
And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.
Keep America free.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 3, 2024
What’s more, her boss doubled down. When an ABC News reporter asked President Donald Trump about Bondi threatening to arrest citizens for saying ugly things, Trump told the reporter: “They should probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate.”
That prompted conservative commentator Charles C. Cooke, a senior editor at the National Review, to tweet: “This is even worse than what Bondi said — not least because Trump is the president and Bondi is not.”
This is even worse than what Bondi said—not least because Trump is the president and Bondi is not. https://t.co/mecQCBjKyt
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 16, 2025
Lest anyone out there is unclear: In America we don’t arrest people for saying things we dislike. That’s not justice. Its authoritarianism — the kind of behavior we revile when carried out by dictators in other countries.
So, good for the consistent conservatives at the national level who are calling it out.
Unfortunately, we haven’t had as much pushback in Florida, where it’s practically a hobby to trample Constitutional rights.
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Several GOP-backed bills have been struck down by federal judges for violating the First Amendment; some by hard-core conservative jurists. In one of the more egregious examples, a Trump-appointed judge had to essentially tell Ron DeSantis: No, you’re not allowed to arrest citizens who donate money to campaign efforts you dislike.
We’ve also seen state officials make blatantly unconstitutional threats in the casual course of doing business — like when the DeSantis administration issued a bogus “cease and desist” order to the Orlando Sentinel to try to get this newspaper to stop reporting on his Hope Florida scandal. (That threat did not work.)
Maxwell: DeSantis orders Orlando Sentinel to stop investigating his scandal. That’s not happening.
The latest example found Uthmeier demanding State Attorney Monique Worrell investigate former Democratic legislator Linda Stewart for posting on Facebook: “ICE in Lynx Central Station downtown.”
The Sentinel’s news and editorial pages have documented in detail why Uthmeier was on such flawed legal ground in calling for someone to be targeted for making an observation. And for baselessly claiming Stewart was “harassing law enforcement” and “playing politics with [their] lives.”
“Ludicrous” was the word used by the head of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
Editorial: Attorney general’s threats are baseless, embarrassing
Uthmeier also revealed his true motives by trying to turn his attack on Stewart into another attack on Worrell, the Democratic prosecutor who lives rent-free in Uthmeier’s head. Here, he was telling Worrell to go after a Democratic lawmaker for a crime no one in law enforcement had even alleged just 52 minutes after telling Worrell she shouldn’t prosecute an accused road-rage killer.
This guy’s obsession with Worrell would make Glenn Close’s “Fatal Attraction” character blush.
Maybe you could just laugh or scoff at all this. But the theme here is scary — government officials threatening to arrest people who say things they simply don’t like.
Well, guess what? James Madison and the other supporters of the First Amendment weren’t trying to protect popular opinions when they drafted the Bill of Rights. They were trying to protect unpopular ones. And to ensure that petty politicians and powerful leaders could never use the threat of arrest to silence those who dare to raise their voice in dissent.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/17/uthmeier-bondi-kirk-hate-free-speech/
